OUR OPINION: ‘Peer comparisons’ paint flawed salary picture
August 16, 2012 at 4:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Why are county and library managers so eager to make labor’s case?
And if managers are siding with labor in this classic and never-ending dispute, then who is speaking up for taxpayers? Continue Reading
I went to see the boss about raising my salary.
He listened to what I had to say, and then he said this:
“I can get someone to do, what you do, for the same amount of money I am paying you right now.”
It seemed to me, I had a choice…remain doing the same work and recieve the same pay…or improve my value to the employer and increase my pay.
A wise man once told me that the world did not owe me a damn thing…
best advice I ever recieved.
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The problems in the assumptions behind this editorial are that most people who are now earning a livable wage should be earning minumum wage instead. The Post Office has traditionally had many more applicants than jobs. If they simply lowered the salaries to minimum wage, they could still get plenty of applicants. Many of the jobs in the library pay poorly mainly because there are so few places for individuals without an interest in the medical field, the restaurant business and the blue-collar trades positions to work. Try getting a job in Grand Forks with an English major. It’s tough. So does that mean that library jobs should all pay at minimum wage? Of course not. In the case of the library, for some reason, even maintenance workers in Grand Forks get paid more for their labor than library workers. Is it worth more for someone to dig a ditch than to teach kids to use the online catalog? I bet if they opened post office jobs to anybody who would do them for the least amount of money, a certain city counselman would be out of work.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Realist, you missed a significant statement in the editorial; that the positions are being filled with qualified applicants. Your belief that simply because you hold an English degree you are entitled to more compensation is incredible. If the job doesn’t require an English degree the fact that you have one isn’t relevant. A person’s choice to pursue a degree that has little application in the job market doesn’t magically entitle them to be subsidized for the remainder of their life. I would have loved to study English rather than my discipline, but I chose not to study English precisely because the job prospects are poor. The editorial asserts the proposition that if the job has been filled with qualified people and there are plenty of qualified applicants, a pay raise isn’t necessary. To answer your question about whether someone who digs a ditch should be paid more than someone who teaches a child how to use the online catalog, yes if it takes more to convince someone qualified to dig a ditch. You claim to be populist but your true colors show when you imply that a ditch digger is inherently less deserving than a library worker. Every job is honorable and everyone who works is admirable, regardless of what job they do. To insinuate that some jobs should be paid on factors other than the market is an elitist point of view.
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As far as mail carriers making too much money, consider this:
Those mail carriers work up to 6 days a week, whether its -39 degrees below zero or 100 degree days/high humidity/high dew point. Alot of this is outside work.
The Post Office has lowered it wages and it is having disastorous results. Wiliston, ND does not even have a Postmaster. Williston and Minot keep trying to hire low wage Postal workers. No can do.
Delivery (Rural & City Street) carriers from the PO are not paid enough. Whether its raining, -39 below zero for week and a half, icy roads, snowstorms, dogs and the like are what they work in.
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You can’t compare anything to what is happening out west, everyone is having a hard time finding help.
In most places, when a post office job opens there are dozens of applicants and very few people ever quit a USPS job. That in itself shows that the compensation is very, very, good.
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Don’t feed me that bull. I have a friend in Bismarck who’s mail carrier REFUSES to deliver mail in the winter. She called his supervisor who came out and took pictures. His supervisor stated that her side walk is the best he has seen and that there is no reason why her mail carrier shouldn’t be delivering her mail. Her side walk is always 100% clean by the time he comes around and steps are completely swept. But unless she either 1) Puts up a road side mail box or 2) Rents a mail box she doesn’t get her mail in the winter.
I am not saying they are all like this guy, but it isn’t the first time I have heard that either.. There is nothing that we can do about it because of the stronghold their union has on the post office. Then we wonder why they needed 11 Billion in Federal aid…
I look to the day that the post office official dies.
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The one thing that I have read repeatedly concerning ACSC locked out employees is this…if you don’t think you are getting paid enough money or you don’t like the benefits package offered by your employer look for a job elsewhere.
So many people have stated on the ACSC boards as well that they haven’t received a raise in two years, some even longer. In addition they have had some of their benefits taken away or reduced.
With so many employment opportunites available in the RRV the people at the library should get a job some place else if they aren’t satisfied. Someone new will be very happy to take their place. Cold but so true.
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You pay for what you get. If you don’t pay good employees a competetive wage they will leave and you could get stuck with an employee worth half the value as the one you let leave
Hot debate. What do you think?
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That may be true but in this case, people arent leaving and turnover is low.
If your job entails checking out a book and checking it back in, i wouldnt expect much more than minimum wage.
there are 13 people working at the Library according to their website; two are Admin personnel.
That seems like an awful lot of people for a simple library in Grand Forks.
I ‘m thinking if they feel they are paid inadequately they should find other employment, its a library not an Emergency room.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The Friends of the Library can volunteer to check books in and out and reshelve them What I would like to know is what Wendy Wendt does to earn a $100K+ pay package?
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Realist, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics less than 3% of workers work for minimum wage, and only 59% of workers are paid hourly rates. The largest groups of minimum wage workers are 16-24 years old, do not have high school diplomas and are not full time employees. You again express a very elitist opinion when you presuppose that most workers do not have any skills that would require more than minimum wage. Most jobs do require some skills (I include within skills the willingness to do an undesirable). A casual glance in the help wanted ads will reveal that the vast majority of jobs require some qualifications. Your fear that a plumber, electrician, doctor, lawyer, teacher, heavy equipment operator, secretary, construction worker, newspaper reporter, police officer, firefighter, or anyone else with a skill that can be quantified will end up working for minimum wage is not rational and contrary to the statistical evidence. I for one am not so elitist that I would ever conclude that I am qualified to do every job there is; please give people who go to work everyday a little more credit than being mindless drones.
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Realist, as for your reference Jonathan Swift, its only purpose in your comment is that it allows you to indulge your ego; a look at me look at me kinda of thing. The satire and political writings of a 1600s to 1700s author/poet are a pretty weak reed upon which to base your argument. Perhaps you should ask the Gulliver for some advice.
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Camo, the reference is to “weak reed” and is taken from several US Supreme Court decisions where one Justice criticizes another. The reference is to the plant that bends in the wind and and has very little strength. A “weak reed” is an argument that has very little support. However, I like the irony of using weak “read” in reference to an author.
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Looking at turnover and applicancy rates is a valid proposal for evaluating whether improving wages of workers is valid. Actually, I think the most important concern is turnover. There may always be plenty of applicants who are willing to accept a substandard wage while they are looking for a better job. If the position requires a fair amount of on-the-job training, it has to drive a supervisor up the wall trying to find a qualified applicant, training them, and then seeing them leave once they have started to do a good job.
Warm bodies aren’t enough in many positions, paritcularly in people-related positions. I have heard people in managerial positions, some of them owners, who complain that they cannot get good help. The problem is they expect $25-30 an hour workers for $9-10 an hour jobs. You do get what you pay for. (The numbers are arbitrary, but I have lived in or near Grand Forks for over 40 years and have observed that for some reason, Grand Forks pays less for more jobs than Fargo, for example, while at the same time charging more for rent. [I am a landlord, nor a renter.]) There is an anti-worker mentality in Grand Forks that seems shared even by many workers. I don’t understand the mindset, but I observed it when I transferred to UND in 1969. Nothing has changed.
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You are correct. After the 1997 flood, electrical contractors werecharging Mpls prices and paying their works GF wages. Don’t know how many people got gouged.
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The electrical contractor who rewired my duplex was from my present home town. He worked by himself and did not gouge me. It would have cost significantly more to hire a Grand Forks contractor, because, yes, they did raise their rates. However, I was not aware that they didn’t raise the wages of their employees. That surprises me!
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You don’t remember all the new vehicles the owners were driving in 97-98?
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I have read all this…stuff…and all I can do is shake my head. What right do any of you have to speak about a job you do not do or even know about. Whether it be digging ditches, mail carrier, or library worker, or anything for that matter. You call speak like you have a CLUE about what these people do when in reality all you can do is spout off about what you MIGHT know. Please, when you start demeaning someone’s job at least have the decency to be educated about what it is they actually do and not what exists in your own mind.
A man who digs a ditch. Who breaks his back in the sun and muck and abuses his body to put food on the table deserves respect. A mail carrier who works long hours, in every bit of weather imaginable deserves your respect. A library worker, who does more than just check in books, deserves your respect because none of you have a clue about what it takes to run, work or even contribute to a library. You just carve them down to nothing with your ignorance. None of you walk in their shoes, don’t even begin to know what they do.
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Have you ever watched the show “Niji Warrior” on G4 that’s out of Japan? One of the superstars started out when he was a gas pumper at a local station, after a few seasons his fame brought so many people to that station that the owner made him a manager. What I found amazing about him and other contestants was how even when he was just pumping gas they nor he acted like that was a lowly job that he planned to transit away from. The same goes with other contestants from all walks of life….I’ve never been to Japan but I get the impression that there’s just more acceptance of the working class regardless what their job is. Where in America it seems like we get further and further away from that concept so that unless you’re a mega earner you’re basically just a peasant and probably deserve the bare minimum….That change in attitude isn’t helping us as a country one bit….Someone raved about the Friedman priciples…….This falls right in line with them…..Make the working class dependant and willing to work for whatever they can get….
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